CRANSTON — If conservatives fail to diversify their base of supporters, they will fail to win elections, a motivational speaker said in an interview Saturday before addressing a gathering of Rhode Island conservatives.

The speaker was Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani, who is chairman and executive director of RagingElephants.org, a group of black conservatives which says it is focused, in part, on rejuvenating American conservatism by encouraging the enrollment of more people of color.

Claver said that, by 2036, people of color will make up the majority of the country’s population. The Republican Party now is mostly white, he said. If Republicans fail to reach out to more people of color, he said, “their potential of winning elections will be diminished greatly.”

Polls show that Americans of color are, in the main, socially and economically conservative — “They just don’t vote that way,” Claver said. As a result, “The very things they believe in are diminished” once the people they vote for take office, he said. “There is a disconnect between the people they vote for and the values of the voters,” he said.

At a workshop on Saturday at the Oakland Grange in Cranston, Claver prepared to urge participants to launch an aggressive outreach campaign to let people of color know where conservative Republicans stand on issues and enlist their support.

About 50 people attended the meeting, which was free and open to the public, said Patti Welcher, of West Warwick, a volunteer with the Minority Advancement Research Council, which was started by Anastasia Eurton, host of a radio show on AM 1380 in Woonsocket.

Her group served as host of the workshop, she said; cosponsors included the Rhode Island GOP, Rhode Island Young Republicans, Rhode Island Tea Party, and the Rhode Island Republican Assembly (whose members represent “the more conservative wing of the Republican Party,” said its president, Raymond McKay, of Warwick).

Among those present was John Santoro, of Cranston, who said he wanted to “learn what we can [do] to take our state back . . . not only our state, but our country.”

Santoro said “progressives and liberals of hijacked this country,” broadening entitlement programs, driving up government costs and increasing the national debt (which, as of Thursday, totaled more than trillion, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt’s online debt calculator).

Shortly after the workshop began, organizers closed it to the news media; Claver said he did not want political opponents to learn details of the group’s strategies and tactics.

Among those who attended at least part of Saturday’s workshop were John Robitaille, Republican candidate for governor; Mark Zaccaria, Republican candidate for Congress (second district); and Richard Langseth, Republican candidate for mayor of Warwick.

Claver met with about two dozen members of Rhode Island Young Republicans on Friday night at Waterplace in Providence, said the group’s chairman, Travis Rowley, of Providence. “Everything he says, it’s mainstream Republican beliefs,” Rowley said of Claver.

Claver is the senior pastor of the Corinthian Christian Empowerment Center in Houston, Texas. He is also host of The Christian Politician Radio Show, broadcast from Houston.

RagingElephants.org, sparked some controversy last year when it put up a “Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican” billboard in Houston. The company that rented the sign to Claver’s group removed it 10 days later, after a local black activist denounced the sign at a news conference. The group has since put up the billboard in South Carolina, the group’s Web site says.

ndowning@projo.com